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11.05.2006

I am disturbed and perplexed by the quote from R' Shach which goes along the lines of lines of:

"When I get to Beis Din Shem Maaloh [The Heavenly Tribunal] and they ask me why I was not a Zionist, I will respond by pointing by pointing to the Chofetz Chayim [and perhaps other previous greats] who was not Zionist..."

(This quote was definitely posted by one of the moderators somewhere, even if not in this thread)

If Zionism is so clearly against the Torah (and I don't doubt that it is), why would R' Shach suggest the need to have answer for not being Zionist?! Quite the contrary!; it is those who _are_ Zionist, in whatever form, who are the ones who need to answer for it.

The quote is the type of answer which would make sense for someone who was asked about a minhag which is shver al pi halacha but which was nonetheless practiced by gedolim and tzadikkim, such as not eating in the Sukkah on Shemini Atzeres or davening after z'man tefilah on Shabbos and Yom Tov.

Rav Shach's statement was not meant to say that he does not know the answers.

It was meant to say that - and this is basically the Litvishe response to Zionism across the board - that it is not an issue that is even worth addressing in detail, because the Gedolim have already said that it is against the Torah, so why should we even think about it?

Someone comes to Rav Shach and he says why aren’t you Zionistic -- instead of arguing with him, he says, why in the world should anyone even consider Zionism, seeing as the Chofetz Chaim - and obviously he just meant him as one moshol - didn’t think it was worth anything. We have more important things to do than spend out time answering every anti-Torah thought that crosses the minds of people.

This was the main difference in the approach of the Satmar Rebbe versus the approach of the Litvishe Gedolim - the Satmar Rebbe decided to fight Zionism by exposing it as heretical, and their "arguments" as laughable fakes;

The Brisker Rav, Rav Ahron Kotler and especially the Chazon Ish decided to just roll their eyes at it and not give it the time of day. This may or may not be a disagreement on how to handle it - it may be that both of these sides contributed a necessary message, or it may be that each handled it according to their intended audience.

But in any case, Rav Shach was just saying: "Zionism? Why???? If the Gedolim thought it was bad, then why should I even bother?"